Puglia - Brindisi in November Part 1

We booked a week in Brindisi in November very much on a whim, solely on the basis of the fact that it is in Puglia, near the sea and has an airport with cheap Ryanair flights. We'd stayed a week in Bari in the spring and had loved it. The airport in Brindisi is tiny and while in the summer is the main arrival point for the whole of the Salento area, in November is largely deserted. It was a very early morning flight and we were out of the airport, onto the local bus just 10 minutes into the centre and rolling our trolley cases through the centre before most people had had breakfast. Fortunately the apartment was available and our host had kindly agreed to let us check in much earlier than normal.

The apartment is ground floor and a little gloomy but very pleasantly decorated and with a nice patio outside.

The weather forecast for our week in Brindisi is not so good, mostly because it's going to be quite wet, but not for low temperatures.

After leaving our luggage we immediately set off in search of the market in the hope of fresh fruit and vegetables and fish, similar to what we found so easily in Bari. It's quite a walk to the covered daily market where we are somewhat mystified to find dozens of fruit and vegetable stalls selling pretty much the same array of fruit and vegetables but not much else. Asking around we ascertain that the fishmongers are instead all concentrated, somewhat inconveniently surely even for local shoppers, in a different area a few blocks away. A dilemma ensues on whether to stock up on fruit and veg first but then have to carry it, who knows how far or whether to come back again later. We decide on the latter and set off in search of fish. The fishmongers area is more a series of shops clustered together than a market and we are a little undecided, resulting in us going in and out of all of them at least twice until I spot a local woman stocking up and decide to follow suit. The fishmonger is friendly and we stock up for a couple of days, go back to the other market for fruit and veg, stop at an ordinary supermarket near the apartment for other basics and finally get back to base just in time to cook lunch.

A leisurely lunch and a nap are a must after such an early start and busy morning and by the time we eventually get out for our first stroll around the historical centre the shadows are lengthening as now the clocks have gone back too. Inevitably, as always, we head for the sea, or in this case, the harbour to get our bearings.

The harbour front in Brindisi has been renovated relatively recently and is a very spacious, clean and pleasant area stretching almost from the bridge we crossed when taking the bus from the airport into the centre, along the river and around the historical centre. The usual light coloured Puglia stone gives a light and bright impression. There aren't many people around and we go up the steps of the scalinata Virgiliana to the column which legend has it marks the end of the Via Appia. 

The column is the original but the capitel is a copy, the original is in the Palazzo Granafei-Nervegna museum which can be visited free. Continuing on the narrow road Via Colonne,  behind the column and under an archway we get to the majestic and almost empty Piazza Duomo with the Archaeological museum on one side and the cathedral and Archbishop buildings on the other. The cathedral, originally built finished in 1132 but then rebuilt, is impressive outside but an ordinary Italian church inside. We continue down Via Duomo past Teatro Verdi with the archaeological remains illuminated beneath it and then along the main shopping street and back to the top of the Scalinata for a view of the sunset before making our way home.

Brindisi seems a pleasant sleepy place and we are looking forward to the rest of the week.